Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A defining moment in the recent Springbok victory over the All Blacks in Dunedin was possibly in the 11th minute of the match when New Zealand lock Ali Williams ran into South African brick wall Schalk Burger.

Burger, who some people think is half man and half metal has been referred to as anything from the Incredible Schalk to RoboBok. He has no regard for his own body, and throws himself around with little regard for the opposition either.

He made an impressive 22 tackles against the All Blacks, showing his true worth as one of the most important players in the Springbok side.

Ali Williams, himself an integral part of the New Zealand team, came off second best with the nasty collision when running into Burger early on in the test match.

It’s been described as a headclash, but looks more like Ali Williams’ head on Schalk Burger’s jaw, which makes one wonder how Burger barely flinched after a hit that saw Williams fall to the floor in a pile of daze and discomfort.

Williams wasn’t the same again, and besides the ringing in his ears, his ankle started to play up too. He soldiered on admirably, but left the field in the 29th minute, to be replaced by the totally inexperienced Kevin O'Neill. The stand-in did a decent enough job, but the value of Williams is immense, and it was a huge loss to the All Blacks.

Nick Mallet, now coaching Italy, has described Burger as a ‘thrashing machine’ with ‘absolutely no fear’. When talking to The Independent about comparisons between the Tri Nations and the Six Nations, he says the key difference is not the technical, fitness, or even skill levels of the players, but the intensity.

‘The Afrikaaner is very physical; he loves tackling and is very brave. It’s the same among the players of island origin in the New Zealand sides.’

I’ve had plenty of requests for this clip since the match. It’s not malicious, or even spectacular, but it’s quite amazing to see two huge men collide, with one falling to the floor and the other totally unaffected.

He's a complete monster that Burger. When I first saw him play I didn't think he's be able to sustain that work rate, for such a huge guy, but he must have an incredible natural sort of fitness to be able to keep it up.

Poor Williams on this one though. Looked horrible and sad to see him go off after getting through the ankle niggles from the previous week.

Strange collision though I have to say. Reminds me of Williams and Chabal.. last year was it?

it was a bad tackle thats all.. you see his arms trying to wrap round but both players bounced back before burger could wrap his arms.. there was an attempt.. pls dun get influenced by the commentators.. there were blind too..

Gents, the commentator actually gave ol "Bash-em-crash-em" Burger props, but this cat has craaaazy stamina!

Would love to see him reaaally tackle Palu outa his socks.

But i totally agree with Mallet...SA and the island teams are all VERY VERY physical, and the awsome thing is they all respect each others ruff stuff...lol...once the match is over theres normally smiles on their faces.

1 all between burger and ali. search for burger getting rocked in the 2006 match in SA off the kickoff. Looks like jerry collins from the caera angle but its actually ali who sends burger back to earth..LOL

I didn´t saw it like a big hit, just a head to head bang (thing that happens every now and then).

It´s my first time posting here and i just wanted to thank you for all the vids. I´m from Uruguay and the local channels don´t show all the games so it´s nice to at least watch a vid with all the tries. So thanks!

Burger really does not have a good tackling technqiue but that does not stop him from being awesome :D

Whenever he goes to tackle someone he just launches himself at there upperbody (and this is a guy who had a spinal fusion op after a career threatning neck injury)

As for calls that whis was an illegal tackle. Rubbish! It was not even a tackle but a head clash, Ali was onto Burger sooner than he thought which is why his arms were still a fair way from wrapping around.

That certainly wasn't a legal tackle - Schalk seems to have problems with where to put his arms when making tackles - they often seem to end up wrapping around someones head - you saw his arm flying over Williams' head there, and that simply shouldn't happen. You saw the same thing in previous games - e.g. when he attempted to tackle flood previously.

Not as bad as Henson for not using the arms though - that guy cant help but put the shoulder in.

It was legal. just hit heads and that can't be counted as illegal. I agree with Mallet though, the mental aproach is different. The Afirkaans players are hugely physical as a culture as are the south sea islanders and the Aussies are really arogant, but in a good way for sport.